Sean: 家中が蚊帳

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Posted by Sean:
家中が蚊帳
http://whiteperil.com/posts/1158391739.shtml


   Well, it's [1]about time:

     The cost of DDT is low, so it had become the insecticide of choice
     to kill lice and mosquitoes after the 1940s, but after the
     heightening of interest in environmental problems in the '60s, it
     was designated a harmful chemical substance and its use forbidden
     in country after country.
     According to WHO, in cases in which it is restricted to indoor use,
     it has almost no environmental impact, and it has become clear from
     recent research that it has no carcinogenic effect on humans. WHO
     states that it is s it diffuses through indoor spaces, it "makes
     the inside of the house into one big mosquito net," preventing the
     mosquitoes that transmit malaria from landing on walls and
     ceilings.

   [2]This is not new information. (Kindly ignore Ronald Bailey's
   misplaced participle in the second sentence.):

     DDT has, of course, been a major target for the environmentalist
     movement ever since Rachel Carson hexed it in her influential 1962
     book, Silent Spring. Widely used as an agricultural pesticide,
     Carson accurately indicted DDT for harming various forms of
     wildlife. Less accurately, she and others in her wake fingered
     residual DDT as causing problems in human beings, including
     increased rates of cancer. In 1972, the U.S. Environmental
     Protection Agency, then only two years old, banned it, a policy
     adopted by many other countries. Worldwide use of the pesticide
     plummeted. DDT remains a powerful symbol of environmental sin and
     environmentalists have literally been pursuing it to the ends of
     the Earth in their efforts to banish it forever. Elimination under
     the POPs Treaty was to be their final triumph over this accursed
     chemical.
     However, it turns out that spraying small quantities of DDT on the
     interior walls and eaves of living spaces is one of the most
     effective ways to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes. In fact,
     during the 1950s and 1960s, DDT use nearly eradicated malaria in
     many countries. For example, malaria in Sri Lanka dropped from 2.8
     million cases in 1948 to 17 in 1963. In India, the case load
     dropped from 100 million in 1935 to under 300,000 in 1969.
     Bangladesh was declared a malaria-free zone. DDT was also an
     important weapon against malaria in parts of the United States and
     Italy. The World Health Organization estimates that DDT may have
     saved as many as 50 million lives since it was introduced in 1945.
     A grateful world cheered when the man who discovered DDT's
     properties as an insecticide was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1948.

   Let's hope WHO follows through.

References

   1. http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/main/20060916STXKG004916092006.html
   2. http://reason.com/hod/rb112900.shtml